[BUG] v2.1.87 idle process grows ~500 MB/min, OOM-killed within minutes on 16GB WSL2 system

Summary

Claude Code v2.1.87 exhibits unbounded memory growth even when completely idle (no user input, no active tasks). A single idle process grows from ~350 MB to ~3.6 GB in under 5 minutes (~500 MB/min). Two concurrent processes (one Discord bot channel listener + one personal terminal) trigger the Linux OOM killer within 10-15 minutes.

This is a blocking issue for anyone running Claude Code as a long-running process (e.g., Discord bot via --channels).

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.87
• OS: Windows 11 -> WSL2 (Ubuntu 24.04)
• Hardware: GEEKOM Mini PC, 16 GB RAM
• WSL config: 12 GB memory, 8 GB swap (.wslconfig)
• Node.js: v24.13.0
• Plugins enabled: 12 (discord, context7, superpowers, github, playwright, serena, etc.)

Measured Memory Growth (Single Idle Process)

Process started via tmux new-session -d -s test "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions" -- zero user input after launch.

| Time After Start | RSS (MB) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ~0s | ~350 | Initial startup |
| 30s | 1,220 | Already 1.2 GB |
| ~2 min | 2,103 | |
| ~2.5 min | 2,376 | |
| ~3 min | 2,658 | |
| ~3.5 min | 2,932 | |
| ~5 min | 3,607 | Still climbing |

Growth rate: ~500 MB/minute while completely idle.

Virtual memory allocation is 75 GB (VmSize: 75166384 kB) from the moment the process starts.

OOM Kill Logs

From dmesg and /var/log/syslog:

oom-kill:constraint=CONSTRAINT_NONE,nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0,
  global_oom,task_memcg=/init.scope,task=claude,pid=1999,uid=1000
Out of memory: Killed process 1999 (claude) 
  total-vm:75099200kB, anon-rss:8060232kB, file-rss:384kB

Memory breakdown from /proc/PID/smaps_rollup:

Pss_Anon:      11059028 kB  (10.5 GB anonymous heap)
Pss_File:         12779 kB
Private_Dirty: 11058740 kB

Nearly all memory is anonymous dirty pages -- heap allocations that are never freed.

Reproduction Steps

1. Install Claude Code v2.1.87 on WSL2 (Ubuntu 24.04)
2. Enable several plugins in ~/.claude/settings.json
3. Start Claude in tmux: tmux new-session -d -s test "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"
4. Do nothing. Don't type anything.
5. Monitor: watch -n 10 'cat /proc/$(pgrep -f "claude --danger" | head -1)/status | grep VmRSS'
6. Observe RSS growing ~500 MB/min
7. On a 16 GB system, OOM kill within 10-20 minutes

Additional Observations

• --bare flag does NOT prevent plugins from loading or reduce memory growth
• --settings override with empty enabledPlugins does NOT prevent plugins from spawning
• The Discord plugin (bun server.ts) launches even without --channels flag
• Chrome crashpad handlers spawn on every launch
• Related closed issues: #34161, #25545, #22188, #21403, #4953, #11315 -- all closed as dupes or Not Planned, none fixed

Impact

Makes Claude Code unusable as a long-running process. Only workaround is periodic restarts, which defeats the purpose of persistent sessions or background automation.

Expected Behavior

An idle Claude Code process should stabilize at a reasonable memory footprint (300-500 MB) and not grow without user activity.